A wireless terminal having an ongoing connection with a base station typically needs to communicate various control channel reports to the base station. The various types of control channel reports may be, e.g., uplink traffic channel resource request reports, channel measurement reports, transmission power reports, etc. In some systems reports can be mapped to a fixed recurring schedule providing for the periodic transmission of each of a plurality of different fixed type of reports on a predetermined basis. By using a predetermined reporting schedule with agreed upon fixed types of reports in each reporting slot, both the wireless terminal transmitting a report and the base station receiving the report know how to interpret the information being communicated and the overhead associated with identifying the type of information in a report can be reduced or eliminated. The predetermined reporting schedule with fixed types of reports can be structured to accommodate a wireless terminal with an average set of reporting needs. However, in actuality each wireless terminal at any given time will normally have a unique set of uplink control channel reporting needs. The wireless terminal's needs may be based upon a number of factors including: current motion, uplink user data needs, latency requirements, channel conditions, interference levels, transmission power availability, and/or the rate of changes of various factors and/or conditions.
Accordingly, it should be appreciated that while using a fixed reporting schedule and predetermined reports may work well under some conditions, it may not work well for all wireless terminals or all possible conditions, particularly where conditions are changing for an individual wireless terminal more rapidly than for other wireless terminals in the system.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated that there is a need to improve upon the use of fixed type reports in combination with a fixed reporting schedule. In particular, there is a need for methods and apparatus that provide a wireless terminal at least some control over the type of information and/or type of report sent to a base station at one or more points in time. It would desirable if improved methods and apparatus could be designed that would limit the amount of overhead used in overall uplink control channel reporting so that it is not excessive as compared to the known use of a fixed set of control information reports and a fixed reporting schedule which is used to control which of the fixed reports is transmitted at a given time.